1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to rooftop fire sprinklers, which are water sprinklers mounted on a rooftop of a building. Rooftop fire sprinklers function to wet or soak the rooftops of buildings and/or the surrounding grounds of buildings with water emitted from a sprinkler mounted on the rooftop in order to reduce the threat of ignition or burning of the rooftop as a result of flying, windblown, or airborne burning or hot embers landing on the rooftop. Burning or hot embers are known to erupt and blow ahead of a traveling forest or brush fire, sometimes at extremely long distances, thereby spreading the fire to buildings located very far from the source of the forest or brush fire. Specifically, this invention relates to a portable self-contained rooftop fire sprinkler that is externally mounted to a rooftop of a building that does not require any external or internal piping from the building to function other than a standard hose bib connection in the vicinity of the rooftop fire sprinkler. Also, the rooftop fire sprinkler of this invention is retractable and adjustable where the sprinkler head and all other main components can be folded downward, retracted, and covered for protection from the elements when not in use. When use is required, the sprinkler head and all other main components may be uncovered, extracted, or folded upwards, where the trajectory angle of the water flow from the fire sprinkler head may be adjusted to suit a specific roof geometry or specific flying ember threat. Rooftop fire sprinklers of this invention use a special lockable flow-through hinge fitting that is used to connect the sprinkler head and the feed hose where the flow direction of the sprinkler head may be adjusted, set, and locked at any desired trajectory angle.
2. Description of Related Art
There are many rooftop fire sprinklers in the prior art. Most are components of a fixed rooftop fire sprinkler system or set plumbing fixtures integral to the building and coupled to a water source via internal plumbing. This invention is different from all such rooftop fire sprinkler systems because it is a single unit that does not couple to any plumbing fixtures or require any building plumbing or piping to function other than a standard hose bib connection in the vicinity of the rooftop fire sprinkler that is coupled to a water source.
There are other rooftop fire sprinklers in the prior art that do not require fixtures or pipe networks to function, such as, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,929,071 and 7,673,696. These rooftop fire sprinklers appear to couple to a water source via a flexible hose coupled to a hose bib connection or similar.
However, even these do not include any of the following novel aspects and elements that are a part of this invention. The rooftop fire sprinkler of this invention is retractable so that the sprinkler head and all other components may be retracted, protected, and covered from the elements to keep the rooftop fire sprinkler in good working order for an extended period without concern about degradation from sun, wind, ice, rain, etc. The rooftop fire sprinkler of this invention has the ability to adjust and lock the trajectory angle of water flowing from the sprinkler head. The rooftop fire sprinkler of this invention uses a special “lockable flow-through hinge fitting” to hydraulically connect the sprinkler head of this invention to the feed hose.